Category Archives: Published Works

This class will be released with the Orcs! A High Octane Adventure (3rd level module) for Hubris.

The Gunslinger

Art is from Darkest Dungeon- Not for Hubris.

Fighters are brutes that hack away at their enemies with swords, axes, and maces. Thieves prefer small blades and like to strike from the shadows. Neither fully appreciate the sleek feel and cold efficiency of firearms, but you do. The heft and weight, the acidic smell of the lit powder, the feel of the kick as a bullet flies from the barrel and lodges itself into the head of your target, blowing out the back of their skull.

No mark is safe from your sights. They can attempt to run, but they’ll feel the stinging pain of your shot, and the horrible realization of death will greet them as they bleed out, slumped against a wall, the light fades from their eyes.

Your ability to make impossible shots and take out targets with ease makes you highly sought after. Whether you swear loyalty to a king or army, or pay heed to no one and make your own way killing for coin or just simply the joy of it, your path is what you make it. And no one will tell you otherwise.

Hit Points: A gunslinger gains 1d8 hit points each level.

Weapon Training: A gunslinger is trained in the following weapons: bolas*, club, crossbow*, dagger, handaxe, short sword, wheellock pistol, and wheellock rifle. Gunslingers can wear any armor up to chain without suffering accuracy to their shots. Bulkier armor interferes with their ability to hold and fire a wheellock weapon properly and they suffer the armor’s check penalty to their attacks.

Alignment: Gunslingers tend to be a cocky lot, assured in their use and mastery of wheellock weaponry. Gunslingers that are loyal to a cause, military organization, or lord tend to be lawful, while those who sell themselves as guns for hire, glory-seekers, or assassins tend to be chaotic. Very few gunslingers gravitate towards a neutral alignment.

Quick Loader: The gunslinger can reload a wheellock weapon in two rounds instead of the normal three.

Point Blank Shot: A gunslinger can shoot targets with a wheellock pistol without suffering negative modifiers (DCC, pg XX).

Rifle-butt Attack: A gunslinger receives a free attack at a d16 against any creature that comes into melee range if they have a wheellock rifle in their hands.

Sharpshooter: When a gunslinger spends a full round aiming and doing nothing else, their attack is more devastating. If their attack is successful, it deals an additional 1d10 damage. The threat range for a critical success is increased from 20 to 19-20 when sharpshooting.

Trick Shot: Gunslingers train tirelessly with wheellock weaponry. They can perform tricky shots that function similarly to a warriors Mighty Deeds ability (DCC, pg 42) ONLY when using wheellock weaponry. Prior to a shot, a gunslinger can declare a Trick Shot. The gunslinger’s Trick Shot die determines whether this was successful. If the Trick Shot Die is a 3 or higher, and the attack lands, the Trick Shot is successful. If the Trick Shot Die is a 2 or less, or the overall attack fails, the Trick Shot fails as well. Similar to a Warrior’s Mighty Deeds, the Trick Shot die does factor into a gunslinger’s attack modifier and damage.

Examples of Trick Shots include feats such as:

Calling a shot to blast away an object held in an opponent’s hand.

Using a shot to snuff out the light of a candle.

Shooting a bullet and having it ricochet off a wall and hit a target around the corner.

Sliding down a staircase banister and shooting at a target.

When fighting enemies that are single-file, shooting a wheellock weapon and having the bullet pass through all of them, dealing damage.

Skeletal Gunrunners from Hubris- art by David Lewis Johnson

Level

Attack

Trick Shot Die

Crit Die/Table*

Action Die

Ref

Fort

Will

1

+1

+d3

1d10/II

1d20

+1

+1

+0

2

+2

+d4

1d12/II

1d20

+1

+1

+0

3

+3

+d4

1d14/II

1d20

+2

+1

+1

4

+4

+d5

1d16/II

1d20

+2

+2

+1

5

+5

+d6

1d20/II

1d20

+3

+2

+1

6

+6

+d6

1d24/II

1d20+1d14

+4

+2

+2

7

+7

+d8

1d30/II

1d20+1d16

+4

+3

+2

8

+8

+d10

1d30+2/II

1d20+1d20

+5

+3

+2

9

+9

+d10+1

1d30+4/II

1d20+1d20

+5

+3

+3

10

+10

+d10+2

1d30+6/II

1d20+1d20

+6

+4

+3

*The critical success tables can be found in DCC, pg 82-83.

Gunslinger Titles

Level

Title

1

Marksman

2

Sharpshooter

3

Sniper

4

Deadeye

5

Master Blaster

Weapon Damage By Class

Class

Light Weapon

Medium Weapon

Heavy Weapon

Gunslinger

1d4

1d6

1d8

This is an optional rule found in Hubris, pg XX.

Gunslinger Starting Equipment

Adventurer gear:

Backpack

Bedroll

Torches x2

Rations x5

Waterskin

Flint and Steel

1 healing potion (1d6+1 HP)

Hemp rope (50ft)

Adventurer’s Clothing

Gunslingers also start with the following- Studded leather armor, 1 dagger or short sword, a wheellock pistol or rifle (20 shots), and a Black Power with pouch and fuse (Hubris, pg XX).

Starting Gold

As stated in DCC (pg 70) all level 0 characters start with 5d12 copper pieces and the weapon and trade good of their profession.

I figured this is a great time to talk about several upcoming DIY RPG Productions that are in the works! 2018-2019 are looking exciting with some awesome work by some kick ass individuals. For all currently released DIY RPG Productions, click here.

I decided to list all the projects alphabetically.

Barbarians of the Ruined Earth (BotRE)– is a game written by me and inspired by Saturday morning cartoons, specifically Thundarr the Barbarian (with dashes of Pirates of Dark Water thrown in). The games uses the fun and simple The Black Hack rules. Here’s the stuff I’ve posted on the blog.

DitNP: Fist Full of Circuits (or Rust Bucket Rampage) by Ian Hagan (art by Ian). This will be a supplement for adding robots (called Rust Buckets) to a DitNP game. They’ll have their own capital city (similar to Scratchtown).

DitNP: Going Medieval on Yo’ Ass- This book is the follow up to the original Death is the New Pink and written by me. It is a fantasy version of DitNP and inspired by punk rock music, Tank Girl, and comics like Skullkickers. Here’s info from the blog. While the original DitNP uses the kick ass Into the Odd rules, GMoYA uses a blend of those and The Black Hack (linked above).

This is the cover- art by Kelvin Green

DitNP: Megarise Mayhem– This awesome adventure is being written by Kane! This module is action packed, full of humor, and will surely put Meat Bags in zany situations and then kill their asses.

Kane did this mock up for Pax Unplugged

DitNP: Scenarios and Nefarios- I am planning to release a DitNP zine every quarter or so. Each issue with have a few scenarios to run your group through, new Doodads, an interesting location, some NPCs, a faction or two, and very importantly- new Nefarios!

The Forever Dungeon– While this will be a supplement for Going Medieval on Yo’ Ass, the product will mostly be rules neutral, so really it could be used with any system. The concept and words by me- the awesome dungeon art by Kelvin Green! Here’s the info posted on the blog.

Demon City– a modern day horror rpg by Zak Sabbath. Here is a link to his blog with all the stuff he’s posted thus far. Zak gives awesome advice on how to run horror games, new and unique mechanics, fun and exciting classes, and of course- killer fucking art!

More news on our kickstarter coming in the near future!

Gathox: Quake Alley Mayhem– David Lewis Johnson has written the first module for his awesome Gathox Vertical Slum setting. This module is exciting, contains easy rules to use in a tournament setting or as a regular adventure. It is currently in layout and art development!

The Ghoul Prince– by Zzarchov Kowolski! This nifty lil module uses the kick ass DCC rules and has the tools needed to fit it into any campaign and environment the group might be in! Alex Mayo has done art for it and this will be released as PDF and POD VERY soon!

High Noon: A Gritty Whitebox Western- This OSR-style western book is written by myself. The book has several classes, advice on keeping it bloody and deadly, bunches of enemies and tables (because I love those) and even a chapter on the Weird West (with classes!) Here is info on the blog.

Hubris: Downpour– will be the first supplement for Hubris (written by me) and will still embody the usable at the table/hack what the fuck you want attitude. The new supplement will have new races as class, organizations, territories, at least one new patron, new monsters, magic items, spells, etc. and will be heavily inspired by Evil Dead, The Mist, Exorcist, The Thing, Marilyn Manson music videos (mostly from Antichrist Superstar), and the like. I’m also taking a little inspiration from Warhammer and a taste of Ravenloft. Here is info from the blog.

Art by David Lewis Johnson

Hubris: Orcs! A High Octane Adventure- is written by me and is inspired by the Mad Max: Fury Road and Snowpiercer movies and the Gears of War video games. The adventure is designed for four to six 3rd-level characters and set in the Hubris: A World of Visceral Adventure campaign setting, but can be used with other DCC settings (or OSR campaigns) as well with some tweaking of the locations and names. The adventure is fast paced, with deadly combat encounters with orcs and their alchemically altered abominations. A new class will be included in this as well! The Gunslinger!

Religion still exists in the Yet-to-be-Wasted World, but many Medieval Meat Bags are bitter and wary of deities, as none manifested to stop the Calamity.

Instead of a list of deities, what they oversee, and their followers this is a table to generate the deity’s form, special feature, sex, and size of religion. Once these have been figured out by rolling on the table, the player decides the name of the deity and what the deity oversees/is responsible for.

Yesterday we kicked off playtesting two new Death is the New Pink projects I’m working on. The first is Death is the New Pink: Going Medieval on Yo’ Ass and the second is The Forever Dungeon. I did a post the other day with a little info on DitNP: GMoYA and The Forever Dungeon.

Players

Liam– Human- Mort (Morty for short)- Level Ye Olde Weenie

Muscle Up! for being human- I am the Bringer of Death– When you kill a target you are able to make another attack (this can go on and on if you keep killing the target).

Frozen Tears of the Spoiled Prince(ss): There once was a spoiled prince(ss) (or maybe he/she was just really sad) and he/she cried and cried and blah blah blah. Anyways, these tears are magically frozen and when one is thrown at a target they must succeed a BAD save or become frozen for 2d6 rounds. If the target is at 0 HP and fails their save, they are permanently frozen. *If you start with this Doodad from a Starter Package, start with 2d2 of these.

John– Human- Cheshire- Level Ye Olde Weenie

Muscle Up! for being human- Ninja– You can hide in shadows that normal people could not. Also when you make a successful Back Attack (pg XX) you add your level as bonus damage.

Race Stuff: Increase your BAD to 13 if less was rolled. Fearless: You ain’t afraid of shit. You are immune to fear effects. Two-handed Fighter: You grew up knowing how to handle large weapons. When using two-handed melee weapons you gain +2 to damage, but doesn’t suffer +2 to attack (pg XX); Orkish-Resistance: Once per day you can become enraged, gaining Resistance (pg XX) to all physical damage for a number of rounds equal to half your BAD score (round down). This is a free action on their turn.

Decoy Mixing Powder: Add hot water and stir for two rounds- creates a squishy version of you that enemies will attack (and eat) unless they succeed on a MOXY save. What flavor are you, roll 1d6: 1) strawberry; 2) lime; 3) orange; 4) raspberry; 5) blueberry; 6) pineapple mango banana (yummy). *If you start with this Doodad from a Starter Package, start with 2d2 of these.

Quick Start

We made characters and then started with a summary of the group getting a drink at Nasty Mimi’s Hooch Parlor and figuring out how to make some quick gold bits.

The group of green behind the ears Medieval Meat Bags decided it would be best to Forever Dungeon for their first official run and get some Doodads, booze, and Gold Bits.

What is The Forever Dungeon

No one knows who built the Forever Dungeon, and let’s face it- no Medieval Meat Bag worth their weight in smoked sausage gives a shit. It’s a twisting labyrinth of rooms; some constructed of drab grey stone, others of smooth obsidian, others made of large vibrantly green jade bricks, and others of cool metal with alien technology infused throughout- so on and so forth.

Riddles and puzzles, traps, Nefarios, Gold Bits, and most importantly, Doodads, can be found throughout the rooms of the Forever Dungeon. Medieval Meat Bag after Medieval Meat Bag runs into this dangerous dungeon in the hopes of striking it rich or nabbing a powerful Doodad! Many don’t make it out, instead ending up a bloody smear on the ground.

However, there’s a couple catches (isn’t there always?): First- almost every time the Forever Dungeon is vacated of Medieval Meat Bags, it seems to rearrange itself (that’s just mean, right?!), so it makes mapping the damned thing impossible! Second- you may think you made it big with a bunch of powerful Doodads, but there is a pretty good chance they are illusions that only function when you’re in the Forever Dungeon. The moment you walk out the door: poof, they’re gone! Not all Doodads are illusions though, and that’s what keeps Medieval Meat Bags going back, time and time again- like rats in a maze hitting a button for a fucking food pellet!

Into the Dungeon

Entrance– The band of Medieval Meat Bags walked through a hallway and came to a door at the opposite end. Nothing of interest encountered. Bjorc opened the door.

Dead Elf Room- The door opened and the group saw the dead body of an elf; his chest crushed with a large object. Morty looted the body and found a collection of colorful rocks. He sighed and gave Cheshire, who had a sling.

The group headed east.

Aside: I used my Loot Die Drop Table to generate any objects found on the body and it worked really well. By telling the players that they could choose how long they search the body, which allows them to possibly find more goodies, but comes with increasing risk worked!

The Creepy Jack in the Box Room- As Bjorc entered the room a lazy, creepy version of Maple Leaf Rag echos through the chamber.

A large box is in the room and the handle is turning slowly. The music ends and a giant Jack pops out of the box. Bjorc goes to investigate and the Jack attacks, smacking the shit out of him. Morty is caught off guard and is unable to act this round. The fight took Bjorc out of commission (although he didn’t die) and they were able to finish off the Jack (sounds dirty) after a few rounds. It was a good first combat and a refresher on DitNP combat.

The group searched the room and decided to head north.

The Mirror Room- In this room was a dusty mirror with a pink frame. The group tried to avoid the room. Morty looked in the mirror and saw himself even more awesome than he already is, gaining +1 to MOXY for the session. Cheshire avoided the thing altogether and Bjorc looked in it and saw himself as a haggard son of a bitch, but suffered nothing else.

The group headed east.

The Room of the Three Doodads- The group walked into this room and saw doors leading west and north and along the southern wall, three dais, upon each rested a Doodad. One held a maul with a pink handle and skulls with spikes coming out of the eye sockets on the flat parts of the hammer. Another held a viking helmet with horns. The horns didn’t end in tips however, but were flat and had circular openings. The final one housed a laser gun. The group talked among themselves and decided who would get what.

Morty went after the helmet and picked it up with no problem and got: Dwarven Horned Party Helmet: The greatest and heartiest of warriors don this helmet. The copper metal dome protects the noggin, while the elongated bull horns give it a fierce appearance. The horns are magically enchanted to always be full of tasty Dwarven Brew. The horns can be turned upside down so the tips are pointed towards the wearer’s mouth, allowing easy hands-free consumption of the brew.

Chesire went after the maul and nabbed it and got: The Mangler: This maul’s (pg XX) attacks always land in the targets genitals. The target must succeed a BAD save or be stunned for 1 round. If the target takes critical damage, it’s bad. Really bad.

Bjorc went to the ray gun and went to grab it, but his hand passed through it. A hologram! He was able to jump back just in time to avoid the lightning bolts that would have fried his ass to crispy chicken level.

The group headed west.

The Fish Hook Room- The group entered the room and saw a human-sized fishhook. On the end was a parcel. Bjorc couldn’t contain himself and jumped on the hook and attempted to wrestle the package free. He felt the hook jerk and was able to let go just in time as it disappeared through the ceiling of the dungeon, which rippled like a stone hitting the water, and then went still again.

The group moved to the north door and Bjorc, in a fit of pouting rage after losing the package, kicked it open. The loud noise attracted the attention of a Nefario in the south room.

The southern door crashed opened and a massive orc lumbered into the room, carrying a shield, a two-handed maul in one hand, and came to fuck shit up.

Orc

BAD 16, DSS 10, MOXY 8, HP 16, AP 2

DRIVEN TO INTIMIDATE AND BE A TERRIFYING BAD ASS!

Orcs are massive creatures with green skin, beady red eyes, giant tusks, ham-sized fists that they use to punch the shit out of soft weak Medieval Meat Bags (1d8 damage), intimidating spikey armor, shields (pg XX), and over-sized weapons (almost as if they are overcompensating for something, right?! Weapons deal 1d10 damage). Orcs smell like garbage and death and take pride in that. Orcas are immune to fear effects and once per combat an orc gains resistance to all physical damage for 1 turn.

Aside: One thing that has always bothered me about orcs in D&D is they are portrayed as huge vicious fighters- and they are- for the first level (maybe two levels), but then after that- they are kinda meh cannon fodder. I want orcs to be a scourge and something that’s terrifying for a Medieval Meat Bag at Ye Olde Weenie Level or even up to Grand Poobah Meat Bag Level. Based on the fight last night- I think I achieved this.

The group set to wailing away on the orc. This fight was fucking hard as hell. Cheshire got off a hit in the opening round with the Mangler, busting the orc right in the balls, stunning him. This let the group get some attacks in with Advantage. Eventually the orc started swinging and Cheshire went down (but didn’t die), and Bjorc was nearly killed. Morty blinded the orc and snuck up on him and got a back attack and critically succeeded, killing him.

The group looted the body, took the shield (shields absorb the damage of two attacks before being made useless) and went north.

The Room of the “Know Know Bird”

In this room was a large flamingo in a wooden cage. It talked. The group approached it carefully. It asked to be let out. The group asked why they should do that.

“Ah come on guys. You lemme out- you get something in return. I’m good for it. You lemme out and I’ll answer one question each about the dungeon. My name is the Know Know Bird. I know shit, know what I’m sayin’.”

Aside: I did a voice and motivations very similar to a character in Hawaii 5.0 for some reason. Scumbag guy with a mullet. I said the flamingo had a pink mullet… Why not, right?

After the group let the Know Know Bird out, they asked their questions for information, and moved on.

The group went west.

Crazy Helga’s Den

Bjorc asked where he could get some supplies. The Know Know Bird had pointed them to the western door, to Crazy Helga.

Crazy Helga collects stuff. She wanders The Forever Dungeon and picks up stuff from the dead bodies. She sells stuff too… for a decent price or a future favor.

Bjorc bought some Healing Vapor Rubs, Morty bought a book called, “Dum Dum’s Guide on How to Pick up Chicks” and Cheshire bought some drugs: Nightshade Goblin Nuggets (150 GB, drug): Smoked, allows you to use one Mystic power once (roll randomly for power) and gives you Advantage on saves against Mystic abilities for 1d4 hours. Once drug has worn off make a MOXY roll. If save fails, permanently reduce MOXY by 1.

The group headed back through the Know Know Birds room to the east to find the wizard that held an invisibility cloak.

Snail Boy Room

In this room the group fought an anthropomorphic snail creature that had the legs of a child and the upper body and shell of a snail with hands with long claws. The group was getting their butt kicked by the creature, but eventually hit it (it only had 1 HP and a 9 BAD score). They killed it.

During the fight Cheshire had smoked his drugs and could cast the spell Poison Heart

Poison Heart: You remove the heart from a dead body and work necrotic magics into it. The heart becomes rotten, vile, and really ichy! You can throw this nasty piece of corpse meat at another target, who must succeed a BAD save or suffer 1d20 Bad damage. The heart explodes upon impact and releases poison cloud in 10’ radius for 2d6 damage to all (no save).

Cheshire then cast the spell on the heart from the Snail Boy and Bjorc cut off the creature’s shell.

The group headed east.

Dead Head Room- The group came across three severed heads and another body nailed to the wall in this room. Bjorc stuffed the three heads into the snail shell and they moved on east to the next room.

The Room of the Heavy Metal Wizard- Sitting on a metal throne was a wizard with a stupid pointy hat covered in stars and moons, petting an imp. In his other hand was an epic guitar.

“Who dares enter the throne room of the Heavy Metal Wizard?!” The wizard held up the guitar and sparks shot from the neck!

The group talked with the wizard for a few minutes. Bjorc offered the severed heads to the wizard.

“Those were my previous band mates! They were fucking lame! However… I do miss them.” The wizard took the heads and put them on the throne, “you’re home now guys.”

Morty then offered a book on how to pick up chicks in exchange for his invisibility cloak. The Heavy Metal Wizard asked to look through the book and then, if it held the promises Morty was making, he would offer up the cloak. Morty agreed and handed the book over.

The Heavy Metal Wizard started thumbing through, “Oh… I see! Yes. It’s so simple! You just have to pretend to give a shit about what they’re saying! I get it now! Oh yes! Here- take the cloak!”

With the cloak in hand, the Heavy Metal Wizard created a portal for the group to head back to Flotsam.

The group caroused (that’s how you get back lost ability score points).

Bjork burnt down a shack (Cheshire saw him do it) and got a magical tattoo.

Cheshire joined a medieval bowling league and went on a drunken shopping spree, going in debt and buying a bunch of shit he didn’t need.

Morty got drunk and fell down a well for a few hours and found a hidden stash of Gold Bits and a few items in the process.

And that’s where we wrapped up the session for the night.

As I was doing with my Barrowmaze campaign, I will be running this for both my group concurrently and see how their shit fucks with one another!

Here’s the final layout for the dungeon

Carousing Rules

Pink are positive outcomes, white are neutral or negative outcomes.

You can gamble 1, 2, or 3d6s.

Drop the number of dice you choose on the chart. If the die is on a line, it is moved into the box which the die occupies the most.

Add all the numbers together and x by 10. That’s how many Gold Bits you blew on your bender!

Recently Bundle of Holding launched a new deal- the OSR +5! There are tons of great RPG products in this bundle including… GATHOX Vertical Slum by David Lewis Johnson and published by DIY RPG Productions!

In my Barbarians of the Ruined Earth campaign (will be published soon). The group has been fighting the Witch Grenzel and her Cabal of Shadows, which has been harassing the village of Route 66 and will soon be headed to either the Ruins of Santa Mo (Ancient Earth Santa Monica) or to Nukatomi Plaza.

This area will be in the final book (the map shown here is by the awesome Hex Kit by Cecil Howe, but I will have a fully illustrated map for the final product).

I wanted to keep the descriptions quick and easy and give just enough for the GM to use and build off of and go from there.

The Western Sands

The Western Wastelands- Art by Kelvin Green (pic added 7/26/17)

Map Key

For Encounters roll a 1d6. On a 1-2 there is something of interest. Roll 1d6. If the result is even, it is an encounter (see page XX). If the result is odd, the group has found an interesting location (see page XX).

Fortress Ruins of Glanora of the Sands

Dilapidated, crumbling, and terrifying.

Screams and cackling echoes through halls.

Fortress holds Stupendous Science device in the lowest basement.

Imperceptible Bluffs of the Winged Mutant People

Extremely high bluffs with colorful vegetation (some alien in origin).

Winged mutants circle the air like vultures, acting as sentries.

Large stone statue of Haputra, a Cosmic Being worshipped by the Winged Mutant People, rests atop highest bluff.

Nukatomi Plaza, The Last Human Kingdom and the Ruins of Los Angel (Ancient Earth City Los Angeles)

Recently I released The Black Hack: Cyber-Hacked! on Drivethru. I used the awesome light-weight Black Hack rules by David Black to create a gritty cyberpunk setting. I thought it would be great to use to run low level Blade Runner/Cyberpunk 202o style games or even low level Shadowrun. Too often I feel that cyberpunk games get lost in the minutia of the tech and it ends up becoming cumbersome and crunchy. I created a die drop chart for hacking to make it more of a quick mini-game/exciting thing rather than just a few rolls. People seem to be really digging it, with which I’m thrilled!

Cyberhacked! is an awesome reskinning of the Black Hack. Mike Evans has really done a good job here, devising a simple mini-system for hacking that works quickly and feels exciting. He also gives you all the tables for cyber enhancements, weapons, vehicles, living expenses, and just the kind of stuff that always holds me back from just diving into a new homebrew game (now I have to create another list???). He’s done it for you. I definitely recommend this. (And the Black Hack if you haven’t checked it out.)

and

If you like cyberpunk at all, then you will love Cyber-Hacked! Mike Evans outdoes himself yet again! There should be grants given to individuals with such creativity. At $2, it is the deal of the century!

Feel free to check it out! I do plan on writing up a full Cyberpunk setting in the near future, but gotta get Hubris and Land of the Spirits out the door first!

Aside: I got the final proofs back for POD of The Starrunner Kit– so once the last changes have been accepted at the printer, that’ll go live as well!